Broke Girl’s Guide To: Navigating the Gourmet Juice Craze (On a Budget)

Kale, algae, chlorophyll: Whether you’re a botanist, a mermaid or a health nut, you can appreciate (or at least ogle at) the kinds of ingredients showing up on gourmet juice bottles, in hip little juiceries popping up on street corners and delivered straight to doorsteps. While we admire the glassy-eyed will of the women who seem to juggle between juice fasts and juice cleanses the same way we go gluten-free until the breadbasket makes its way to our side of the table, we can’t seem to get on board with the gourmet juice craze.

It seems like we’re not alone. There’s been an ongoing healthy debate, nutritionists on one side and juiceries (and their celebrity connoisseurs) on the other, about the benefits and potential pitfalls of the all-liquid diet. Does having a clean colon really mean we must accept a slower metabolism? Can an 8-ounce bottle of pureed garden actually provide the nutrients a woman needs? How much of this is just (albeit brilliant) marketing?

Health concerns aside, the price tag is prohibitive enough on its own. Unwilling to just close our eyes and drink the Kool-Aid, we investigated the costs of gourmet juice services and found a few affordable alternatives. Try these as a nutritional supplement, a quick snack on the go (we love a juice before or after the gym) or in place of a coffee for a better pick-me-up.

Read on for the Broke Girl's Guide to gourmet juice alternatives...

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